Monday, December 07, 2015

December 7, 2015-Racing Season is Upon Us.

The summer in La Cruz was long and the days were hot. We moved slowly during those hot days. We had work to do on the boat before the start of racing season but that seemed far in the future and we never really felt much pressure about the work; there were many days in which to do it. In all that heat and humidity we were happy if we did at least one thing constructive every day but we let siesta take up most of the afternoons. July rolled by, August, September…October. October? Oh my gosh. It hit us that there wasn’t much time left. Now, all of a sudden, racing season was almost upon us and we were just barely getting the boat ready. Or were we even doing that? There were still some issues, big ones.

So when October came we knuckled down to work. First, the cockpit. The cockpit sole was soft and had been for a while. The balsa core was rotten. Replacing it was a job we’d been putting off, for years actually, but it got worse over the summer. We began to worry about the possibility of someone crashing through the sole to the main salon below. We attacked it with a grinder and a cutting blade. We ripped off the fiberglass skin. We ripped out the old balsa. Then we replaced it with new wood, good Mexican wood, and plenty of epoxy, and put all back together. What a job. Well now it’s done, it’s plenty strong, and it looks good.

We also got the primary winch fixed. The drum on starboard primary winch broke one afternoon. Like a sailor with scurvy it started losing its teeth. The aluminum teeth were falling out like crazy. Remedying this took some decision making. We could buy new drums from Allen Hutton in Australia, at a price which was pretty high for us, or we could buy some used winches, sight un-seen, on EBay. We decided instead to try to get a local machine shop to fix our broken one with new stainless steel gear teeth. I’d almost rather have gone to the dentist. It took nearly a month to complete this work and there were several return trips to the machine shop to get it right. I won’t say it’s perfect yet, even now it clangs like a cow bell when free-wheeled but we think it will work.

Then there are the sails. The heavy #1 genoa was cupping in the leech and needed a bit of a recut. The mainsail also needed some minor repair work on its leech, but to increase the longevity not to change the shape. We took them both into the loft earlier in the summer and got them back in October. Jim Slosson, my old college buddy, went sailing with us to take a look. The jib was good and it we knew it will help us this year but the main still needed more work. Back to the shop it went. This was getting old. When it came back a second time and still wasn’t right I did some sewing on it myself. But it’s ready now.

All this last minute stuff was somewhat nerve wracking; the first race was scheduled for November 25 and we weren’t ready. We would have gone out, ready or not, even if we had to use the Dacron main, but on top of everything else crew was an issue. So we were relieved when the race was cancelled.

Actually, as of that first Wednesday race, we didn’t have a crew. Last year’s bunch has largely broken up and moved on. We needed a new group. Finding them was one task we couldn’t do much on during the summer; there isn’t anyone around here to recruit from then, although I tried. We did line up a team for the second race, which was Dec 2, and we sailed. The new crew turned out to be terrific. In fact they were great. Now if only we can keep them. Most of this bunch are cruisers themselves and cruisers tend to move on so we don’t know. Right now things are still fluid. By January we hope to have a solid, well trained, regular, crew.

That race on Dec 2nd was our first of the season, and it turned out pretty good. The wind was light, almost nonexistent, but we sailed well in it and kept moving. We led most of the way. The finish was close and Blue, the J-160, which finally overtook us on the last leg, beat us over the line so we finished second. But we believe they didn’t finish properly so in that case we won, but, of course, that was argued for hours at the after race party, to no conclusion. We’re happy anyway.

About Me

Two people: Fred & Judy , drawn to each other and yet somehow drawn also to the sea, and both intrigued by the idea of living aboard.
I saw her, blond and asymmetrical, beautiful, boarding another’s boat and I followed her and wooed her, or she wooed me. That was 1985 and we fell in love and we thought that to buy a boat and make a life together on the water was only natural.
So we did.
Fate.
The boat was WINGS.
For the next ten years we lived on Wings in Seattle, had jobs in the city, sailed every chance we got, and 40-50 times a year, went racing. It was great.
Then we left Seattle and began our cruising life. We voyaged across the world, across the seven seas, to faraway places, and made them our own.
Wings was our home, and is still, and we lived wherever the sea met the land and people welcomed us, as they did everywhere.
For thirty years we’ve lived this life, and more to come, we hope.
Join us now, and sail the seas.
Fred Roswold & Judy Jensen, SV Wings, Caribbean